Football: Jon Embree likely to face tough decisions in offseason

Firing assistants not an easy move for most coaches

By Kyle Ringo Buffzone.com

Posted:
11/08/2012 07:48:36 PM MST

Coach Jon Embree
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CLIFF GRASSMICK
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Jon Embree could be two weeks from encountering one of the toughest parts of his job for the first time.

Colorado's second-year head football coach will likely make changes to his coaching staff when the season ends following Utah's visit to Folsom Field two weeks from Friday. Athletic director Mike Bohn hinted that significant changes will be made at the end of the season during an interview with the Camera following last week's 48-0 loss to Stanford on homecoming.

It was the Buffs' fifth consecutive blowout loss and one of a dozen in Embree's short time as head coach.

Bohn didn't directly say assistant coaches will be replaced. In fact he refused to comment on any coach's job security, including Embree's. But Bohn made it clear the status quo is not acceptable heading into the offseason.

"After the last game the intensity of reviewing all aspects of the program will increase dramatically with improvements and adjustments implemented," Bohn said.

It is believed Embree's job is safe, unless the final three weeks become an even bigger debacle on the field than the past three have been against teams ranked in the top 25. CU has been outscored 168-20 during that span. Any significant off-field issue could also lead CU officials to re-consider their current plan for keeping Embree, but that is seen as unlikely.

President Bruce Benson said earlier this fall he planned to keep Embree on as coach regardless of the results in the win-loss columns this season and maybe next. When contacted this week to see if anything had changed in his thinking, Benson's spokesman, Ken McConnellogue, said the president remains committed to Embree having at least one more season to show improvement.

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Embree said this week he has had discussions with Bohn about possible changes and enhancements to the program in the offseason. He said he will wait to discuss any changes until after the season.

No head coach wants to be in the position Embree finds himself in this season, possibly having to fire men he cares for and respects.

However, fans want answers and accountability with the Buffs producing one of the worst -- maybe the worst -- seasons in the program's history. And holding everyone in the program to a certain standard and level of competitiveness is one of Embree's chief responsibilities.

Assistants losing their jobs for poor performance has been a rarity at CU, despite a lengthy history of turnover in the coaching staff from year to year over the past three decades.

Former CU coach Bill McCartney decided to shake up his coaching staff and completely change offensive systems between the 1984 and 1985 seasons. McCartney's teams had won only seven games in his first three seasons in Boulder and he chose to abandon a more conventional offense and move to a triple-option attack.

Embree is wrestling with the idea of changing from a pro-style system to a spread system in the coming offseason and has already acknowledged trying to add elements of the spread to the Buffs' repertoire this fall.

It is just another similarity between the start of Embree's tenure and the beginning of the McCartney years.

When McCartney opted to change offenses, he shuffled his staff and coaching responsibilities, including switching Gary Barnett, a CU assistant coach at the time, from running backs coach to quarterbacks and fullbacks. He also added Steve Logan and Oliver Lucas to his staff.

Embree was also affected by McCartney's decisions. He was a star tight end who led the Buffs with 51 receptions for 680 yards in 1984. He caught 17 passes the next two seasons combined.

Colorado went 7-5 in 1985, beginning a run of success that led to the 1990 national title and a decade of dominance in the 1990s when the program produced 56 NFL draft picks.

Barnett can relate to what Embree is going through this season. Barnett, who was hesitant to be interviewed about CU because he didn't want to be perceived as criticizing Embree or his staff, said parting ways with an assistant is often a very difficult decision for college coaches.

"I think it comes down to your personality and how much of a business approach you take to the college football world," said Barnett, who was head coach at CU from 1999 to 2005. "I always believed that my success was mostly due to the assistants that I had.

"You go through wars with these guys and you watch their kids grow up. You have a bond and you have a friendship and you have a working relationship and you have a trust factor. Then all of a sudden you have to make a decision based on a particular performance or performances, and that's what made it hard I think."

Barnett fired an assistant coach only once in his career at the end of the 2003 season when he parted ways with former defensive coordinator Vince Okruch.

The Buffs implemented a 4-2-5 defense that season and gave up 34 points or more in seven games on their way to a 5-7 record two years after winning the Big 12 Conference title.

Barnett said his decision to fire Okruch wasn't based entirely on the results on the field.

"The kids just no longer believed in our coordinator," Barnett said. "Listening to our players and our other coaches, they just had lost confidence in him. That's really what put it over the top for me and made the decision for me.

"When that happens, I don't think you get that back over the course of the spring. That's not an indictment of what the coordinator knows or whether he can coach or not. That's just what happened there at that time in that situation."

Reflecting on the decision this week during a phone interview, Barnett said he and his staff came to a group decision to switch to the new defense the previous offseason. At the time the 4-2-5 defense was viewed as unconventional. CU switched to it in hopes of getting more speed on the field. Now it's routinely used across the nation, especially in games against spread offenses.

"I never want to be wrong as a coach," Barnett said. "And by making a change, then I had to say to myself that if I let this go on any further, then it's a matter of my ego and not a matter of what's right for our football team.

"By letting him go, I was also confessing that I had been wrong. However anybody wanted to read into it, I think that's what they would see as well. I couldn't let my ego become more important than the program."

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